Feeling closed in from all sides doesn’t need to be a negative. Calmly take it in. Breathe. Realize that before long that claustrophobic pressing pulls forward, away, and on to wherever aggressors go when one does not let their push back intimidate.

For years I have been fascinated by the language I am spoken to by strangers. People look at me and either confidently speak, hesitate and then speak in slow English, rarely Spanish, or bluntly ask What’s your ethnicity?.

Waiting for a clue, a word, a sounds from me, verification for them, I teasingly smile.

Race, ethnicity, politics, and political correctness have forever come together, further complicating who and what I am, have been and am now.